


Writ in All of Us

by chthonianCrocuta (lovesthesoundof), Daxolotl, EzzyAlpha, Scribblescruff, urbanMystic



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alcohol, Asphyxiation, Bodily Fluids, F/F, Hospitals, Incest, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 21:07:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2243523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovesthesoundof/pseuds/chthonianCrocuta, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daxolotl/pseuds/Daxolotl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzzyAlpha/pseuds/EzzyAlpha, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribblescruff/pseuds/Scribblescruff, https://archiveofourown.org/users/urbanMystic/pseuds/urbanMystic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your name is Sergeant Roxy Lalonde. You're a war hero, caught in the middle of humanity's greatest struggle for survival. The enemy: the Voidborn, hideous monsters that come through portals in the sky. It's been a long fight, but there's one more surprise ahead for the human race - one that could end up being your salvation.</p><p>That's right, Alterra. Wizards are motherf**king <i>real.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Writ in All of Us

**Author's Note:**

> This was created for the Homestuck Shipping World Cup 2014 as Team Rose<3Roxy's Collab Round entry. Written by myself, Daxolotl, with a serious amount of editing done by chthonianCrocuta. The initial concept was created by Scribblescruff, the work with runes was from urbanMystic, and Innsmouth kept us all on a level heading to make sure we didn't go too crazy with it. The artwork was concepted by EzzyAlpha and completed by IncorrigibleIxoreus. I want to thank all of them, because without their help this really wouldn't have been possible.

You watch from your hospital room as the news reports come in. They’ve attacked again. Another portal, another invasion. In a city centre this time. The Voidborn are tearing your world apart, and you’re bedbound. You want to break something. Scream. Do _anything_. 

So you do. You scream until you’re hoarse and lash out with your arm until the pain makes you collapse and nurses rush in to sedate you.

Two days after the invasion begins, evacuation is still ongoing. Voidstorms rage, bringing down helicopters that fly too close to the portal. Reports are coming in about the death toll, but the numbers blur together. One million. Two million. Five. It’s nothing new. But this is the first time in a long time you’ve watched from the sidelines. You hate it. You hate even more that you can’t imagine a million people, let alone a million dead. A million is long past the point where people turn into a statistic.

On the third day, something remarkable happens. 

Midway through a report on the evacuation efforts (too slow), and the impossibilities of airstrikes against targets so close to civilians, The TV screen floods with light. At first, you think your superiors have called a bombing run despite the civilians and soldiers still trying to escape. But once the camera adjusts the buildings are still there. The streets are undamaged. The news helicopter, dangerously close to the no-fly zone, stays in the air.

And then they come.

The news reports are scattered, confused. Nobody can get a clear answer. For a few hours, you’re terrified. Is this some new weapon of the Voidborn? Some new monstrosity unleashed from the lightless depths?

More information comes in. The news becomes clearer. People. People wearing clothes made of shimmering silk, using weapons and technology that nobody has ever seen before. New beasts, fighting against the Void. The first video footage comes in, and, for the first time in a long time, you laugh. You laugh hard.

Your name is Sergeant Roxy Lalonde. And wizards are fucking real.

\---

A week after the wizards appear, you’re let out of hospital. Your sling is already starting to itch. A black armoured car is waiting for you outside and as you approach, the back door opens automatically. 

General Peixes sits within.

“General. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” Translation: what the fuck is an officer doing meeting a glorified scientist who’s barely qualified for her rank.

“Get in the damn car, Sergeant.” 

You get in the car. The door closes, and whoever’s in the front seat starts driving.

“Is this about the wizards, Ma’am?”

“The force you’re referring to is still an unknown. You’d better start calling it one.”

“...Yes Ma’am.” Bullshit, you want to say. What you saw on the news was motherfucking wizards. High Command wanting to sit on their asses and call them an Unknown Force doesn’t change that.

She sighs. “Look, Lalonde. You and I both know important things are happening at the moment. The rest of Command wants to try and ignore the unknowns for as long as they can. They don’t want an alliance with something they don’t understand.”

You nod, slowly.

“I say we need an edge. Somethin’ to fuck with the voidborn something fierce. But that’s my personal opinion on it. Publicly, I’m in agreement with the Grand Marshal. But until we can decide what to do, we’re stuck. And having a stuck military makes the public nervous.”

“What are you asking me to do, General?” You can tell it’s one of those meetings. You’ve never been part of one of these before. It’s cinematic.

“Keep the public distracted. Six months ago, you showed people that we could fight the Voidborn and win. They rallied behind you then. And now, after Asuf? You’re a war hero, Lalonde, and people listen to heroes. The public likes ‘em for some reason. We’re giving you a Star of Verdain tomorrow. And after that, you’re going on talk shows.”

Okay, you must have misheard that. “A Star of Verdain? Talk shows?”

“Yes, and yes. The first, you’ve earned. The second, we need. Until your arm is good enough to put you back on the front lines, we need you as our ‘voice to the public’. Hopefully, that’ll give us time to work out a course of action with regard to the Unknowns.”

Yep. Definitely bullshit. “With all due respect, Ma’am, my arm’s fine. They let me out of hospital.”

“And on the front lines, you’ll kill a hundred of them and then put yourself right back in again. Here, you’ll keep people calm. You’ll stop riots from happening. You’ll save people’s lives.”

“General, I’d like to object...”

“And I’d like to win this war.” The car pulls over and your door opens. She’s taken you to the Officer’s Compound. “You’ll be stationed here until your medical leave runs out. I arranged for your personal effects to be transferred here.” What the fuck. First she puts you on politics duty, and now she throws you out of the barracks? “Tomorrow, 8am. Show up in dress blues and be prepared to speak to the media. You’re dismissed.” 

You exit the vehicle. Fine. God knows you can follow a goddamn order. Once in your newly-assigned quarters, you search through the boxes of your things until you find your laptop, pulling it out one-handed from underneath a pair of boots and a hoodie. You’ve been relying on the news in hospital, but now you can actually find some decent information. Your fingers hover over the keyboard, cursor blinking in the searchbar. Probably judging you. Bastard. “Yo, fuck you too.” You mutter as you type in your search term.

** Wizards **

You do your best to ignore everything else in your room, and, two hours later, do your best to sleep while ignoring the pain in your shoulder.

\---

The next day, they give you the Star of Verdain. You do your best to slip away after the ceremony, but a military reporter catches you on the way out.

“Sergeant Lalonde, can I speak to you for a moment?” A lackey is already setting up a camera.

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t have...”

“Oh. My mistake.” The reporter looks put out. “General Peixes told me you’d be available for comment after the ceremony.”

Fuuuck.

“Okay. I think I’ve got a few spare minutes.” The reporter beams and the lackey switches on the camera. In the side screen facing you, your smile looks feigned. 

Basically, fuck reporters.

“I’m here with Sergeant Roxy Lalonde of the 4th Infantry Company, 13th Infantry Division, who has just been awarded the Star of Verdain for her actions during the Battle of Asuf. This marks the second time she has bravely gone above and beyond the call of duty, and the second time she’s been wounded in action. Sergeant, how does it feel to be the youngest soldier ever to be awarded the Star of Verdain?”

Damn it. He wants you to talk about _feelings_.

“It’s a big honour. I just went to Asuf to help in any way I could, and I think I did. I would’ve done more if I hadn’t dislocated my damn shoulder.” You grin a little. “But I survived, and I mainly want to...” Something flickers on the screen. “get back...” There’s something glowing and purple on it. “...to active duty...” Energy arcs across its surface and it flickers again.

** Sergeant Lalonde. **

“Uh...okay. That’s good to know, Sergeant. You’ve been an inspiration to a lot of people already, and your determination is great to see.” The reporter tries to move along quickly. “And what do you think about this new force? This Unknown group? I can’t get a straight answer out of anyone in Command.”

You snap back to the conversation. “Say again?”

“The new force.”

Oh. “Well, it’s not really my place to say. I haven’t encountered them, and until Command has an official statement about them, I’m not sure...”

The reporter interjects. You glance at the screen again. The glowing object persists. “Oh, that’s true enough. But I’d love to hear your personal opinion. This is something completely new, and my viewers want to know the feelings of someone outside of High Command. I mean, come on, they look like magicians.” There it is again.

** Don’t panic. **

“Wizards.” you correct, without thinking.

“...What’s the difference?”

Shit. Oh, no. No, he did NOT just go there. “Magicians are fake. They’re the people you go to see who pull rabbits out of their top hats and stuff handkerchiefs up their sleeves. Who tell you what card you’re holding through cheap tricks. Wizards? Wizards use real magic. And, as we’ve been seeing on the news...they exist.”

Well, shit. You just made yourself seem like a complete wizard fanatic in less than fifteen seconds. The reporter seems taken aback.

“Uh...okay. Thank you for clarifying. I think that’s all we have time for today, so, once again, this is Sergeant Roxy Lalonde, the youngest person ever to be awarded the Star of Verdain. Thank you very much for your time.”

You nod and the camera is shut down. As the lackey’s hands touch the screen, energy sparks across it again.

** We need to talk. **

What the hell.

You thank the reporter and make a hasty exit. Either you’re going batshit insane, or wizards are trying to contact you.

\---

You find your way back to your room and lock the door. When you tap your laptop’s mousepad to wake it up your search from last night is still there. Do wizards not like being searched for? 

“This is some kinda urban legend shit right here,” you mutter. “Talk about wizards, get hunted down by them, that sorta jazz...” You click to close the browser and get an electric shock for your troubles, making you hiss shake your hand in the open air. “Motherfu...” Purple energy flows along the laptop. “Oh, goddamn it. This is definitely some urban legend shit.” You draw your pistol and aim at the computer, relaxing slightly as you hear the comforting _’beeep’_ of the weapon’s biometric scanner confirming your military status.

Your Pesterchum opens itself. 

“...Okay, I didn’t see that one coming.” 

You look around the laptop without touching it and notice a few more of the glowing objects adorning its surface. You look back at the screen and sit down.

** tentacleTherapist [TT] began communing with tipsyGnostalgic [TG] **

TentacleTherapist? Communing? “This is exactly as spooky as I was expecting, yet somehow disappointingly normal.”

** TT: Sergeant Lalonde. **

You don’t answer. What do you say to a computer being possessed by wizards?

**** TT: I know you’re there, Sergeant.  
TG: now how the hell do you know that?   
TT: Ah, there you are.  
TT: You touched the computer.  
TG: and?   
TT: And your touch triggered the runes adorning your laptop.  
TG: o  
TG: okay so next question  
TG: who the fuck are you and why are you possessing my computer? 

Thinking about it, you should’ve asked that one first.

**** TT: My name is Rose.  
TT: And I’m not possessing your computer. I’m communing with you through it. It’s not my fault you don’t have a scrying pool.  
TG: okay ‘rose’  
TT: Rose is my name. I’m not sure why you’re adding quotes around it.   
TG: ...  
TG: okay ‘ ‘rose’ ’  
TG: why am i being contacted by a wizard?  
TT: I’m a Seer, technically. Or a witch, if you’d rather call me that.  
TT: I need your help. 

...You didn’t see that one coming, either.

**** TG: say what now?   
TT: Your military has no intention of ever speaking to us. They’ll pretend to consider it for a few weeks, then they’ll declare us a vigilante force and refuse to accept our help.  
TT: When the final assault from the Void comes, both sides are weakened from disorganised fighting.  
TT: We all lose.  
TG: that does totes sound like something wed do  
TT: You’re remarkably calm about the extermination of all life on the planet.   
TG: oh no believe me im doing an acrobatic fucking pirouette off the handle  
TG: but im having a conversation with a witchy seeress over pesterchum atm so  
TG: my crazy horseshit o meter is kinda out of whack over here  
TG: is seeress a word?  
TT: Technically yes, but it’s a tautology. All the Seers we have are women.   
TG: good to know  
TG: okay so we lose everything because we decide its a good idea to fight wizards instead of the voidborn  
TT: Yes.   
TG: so why contact me? why not contact an officer who can actually change things?   
TT: Because none of them would believe me. In their eyes, I can’t be trusted. You, however, have the public eye.  
TT: I’m not sure what you’re going to do, but the Lights point towards your importance.  
TT: I knew I had to contact you. Seeing your interview this afternoon confirmed that.  
TG: okay so now ive got a magic fan  
TG: and im apparently cosmically important  
TT: I wouldn’t worry about that second part too much. Small rocks can be cosmically important if the Lights are feeling vague.  
TT: They once insisted that I save the life of a mutated cat. When I sought more details, they simply said ‘vodka’. They have a habit of being maddeningly unhelpful.  
TG: okay so not so much with the cosmic importance  
TT: Perhaps.  
TT: Or perhaps you’ll save us all.  
TT: Ultimately, how you’ll be important isn’t significant. The Lights told me to speak to you here and now, and so I am. So, tell me, Sergeant Lalonde. What do you want to know?  
TG: anything i want?   
TT: Yes. So long as you don’t ask for the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, we should do fine.   
TG: omg  
TG: wizardy references to sci fi  
TT: I dabble. 

You’ve been given free rein to ask a Seer anything you want to. That doesn’t happen every day.

**** TG: are mythical creatures real?   
TT: Not what I expected you to start with.  
TT: Define mythical.  
TG: unicorns  
TG: dragons  
TG: vampires and werewolves  
TG: ooh! nagas and gorgons!  
TT: Not any more, yes, yes, no, possibly, yes.   
TG: no werewolves? :(   
TT: There are shapeshifters, if that makes you feel better.   
TG: a little  
TG: is there a word for magical society? shits clumsy to say  
TT: Many. The Descent, The Underborn, The Lamentation. The herd, if you’re talking about centaurs. The High Council of Magi. But the group you’ve encountered, and that I’m a part of? We’re called the Apostates.   
TG: the apostates? isnt that to do with opting out of religion?   
TT: Usually. For us, it relates to our decision to reveal our existence to you. The High Council forbade it, claiming the Voidborn invasion is an affair for your culture alone to deal with. We respectfully disagreed.   
TG: ...so not only are you a magic seer  
TG: but youre a ROGUE magic seer  
TT: Yes. I and a number of others realised that the Voidborn are not going to stop with your annihilation. Hiding behind illusions and deep underground isn’t going to save us. They want us all dead.  
TT: So we’re going to make them dead first. 

\---

For the next few days, this is your life. You make nice with the journalists like the good little soldier you are, and then you go home and talk to the person who will probably be declared your enemy as soon as Command makes their decision. It’s like being a wizardy secret double agent, except with actual treason.

She tells you about the world of magic. How they’re hidden behind illusions and deep underground. How there are entire islands nobody can see, filled with the creatures who can’t live underground but need their own space. How some live double lives in Mundane society, with no one suspecting their magical nature. You should be offended that she calls you Mundane, but it’s true. Their world is remarkable. Yours is just...markable. Or something. Still better than being called a muggle.

You start being defensive about the Apostates in interviews, insisting they’re here to help.

The fifth day, you ask her about the Voidborn.

**** TT: They’re daemons.   
TG: daemons?  
TG: are we talking biblical level horned devil type things? because they dont have horns  
TG: theyve got plenty of tentacles but they do not have horns  
TT: All myths have their origins.  
TT: The Voidborn are daemons who live in what you call the Void.  
TT: Portals can be opened from within the Void, through to other dimensions. They come to a world, and they tear it apart. They feed on Entropy. As a world crumbles, they grow stronger. When they return to their void, the energy sustains them for long enough to destroy another world.  
TG: that makes them sound more like animals  
TG: locusts?  
TG: but theyre coming through magical portals to get here  
TT: If they sound like locusts, then I’ve described them wrong.  
TT: Their attacks are targeted. They detect weaknesses in the fabric of reality. They tear through it, creating the portals. Sometimes, lone Voidborn create a small tear. That’s where our knowledge of them comes from. Every so often, one will find its way through. But when they find a larger weakness, millions of them can pour through.  
TT: Individual portals only last a short span of time, but your scientists have probably noticed that the portals are getting bigger and lasting longer. That will continue until they finally create one large enough to remain open for several months. Then everything dies.  
TT: That’s what I’ve Seen, and that’s what the High Council refuses to believe.  
TG: so how do we stop it?   
TT: By working together. 

Your fingers hesitate on the keyboard. She wants an alliance. That’s why the Lights had told her to speak to you. She wants an alliance, and she wants you to be the one to create it.

Yes. Fuck yes.

**** TG: hell fucking yes  
TT: Oh good. I’d very much hoped you’d say that.   
TG: we should meet  
TT: What.   
TG: we should meet  
TT: I got that the first time. Why?   
TG: youre literally asking me to convince my superior officers that working with you is a good idea when you already told me that without interference theyre going to ignore you  
TG: or failing that to appeal to the public and possibly be accused of treason by the military for inciting public unrest  
TG: or failing that to literally commit treason to join you  
TT: That’s true. I am.   
TG: so im gonna ask to meet you first  
TG: itd be just my luck for this whole thing to be a big government sting operation to root out wizard supporters  
TG: and fuck you herbert i aint falling for your tricks  
TT: Herbert?   
TG: long story  
TT: ...Right.  
TT: I understand your concerns. I’d be distrustful, as well.  
TT: Alright. We can meet.  
TG: when and where?   
TT: Two hours. There’s a bombed-out building not too far from the barracks. It used to be a factory of some sort.   
TG: theres like four of those  
TT: You’ll know the right one when you see it. 

** tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased communing with tipsyGnostalgic [TG] **

Two hours? She must be nearby. Part of you wonders if she’d been keeping an eye on you. Part of you doesn’t mind the idea.

\---

An hour and a half later, you slip out of the front gate. And by ‘slip out’ you mean you walk out after being checked by the guard. You tell him you had to head to the hospital for a checkup. He believes you. Roxy Lalonde, master of stealth.

It doesn’t take you long to reach the factories. They’re abandoned, with holes blasted through the brickwork like an amateurish demolition crew had been let in with nothing but a wrecking ball and some dynamite.

You walk past the first one, and the second. The third makes you stop. The front door is closed, and there’s something there. Something glowing. You approach it. More runes. You trail your fingertips along the lines between them. It reminds you of something you saw years ago. There’s a spark of static and the runes glow brighter, before vanishing. This is the place, then. You push the door open.

It’s empty. You aren’t sure what you were expecting. Minotaurs, maybe? You scuff brick dust from two old chairs and carry them to the centre of the room, one at a time. You start rolling your shoulder out within its sling, hissing as your muscles complain and the bones crunch against one another. That occupies you for precisely four minutes. And now you wait.

Exactly two hours after she sent her last message to you, she appears. Literally appears. Like. Whoomp. Suddenly a Rose appears. Shit’s unreal. You blink and look at her. Light fades from around her, but purple glowing lines persist across her skin. After a few moments, they too fade.

“...You just teleported.”

She looks more normal than you were expecting. Just a human who happens to have lines on her skin that glow sometimes. You’re kinda disappointed. You’d been imagining her as an elf.

“Translocated,” she corrects you automatically, looking around the room. “You’re alone. That’s good. I was half expecting to be greeted by the barrels of a dozen firearms.”

You shrug with one arm and sit back in your chair. “I could be carrying that many.”

She quirks an eyebrow at you.

“You’re human,” you add, looking her up and down.

“What did you think I was?”

You grin at her. “Ogre, maybe?”

“Ouch.” she responds, stepping forwards. You may or may not watch the sway of her hips. She takes her seat opposite you. “That’s even more insulting than you’d expect. Ogres are awful. The smell alone is unbearable.” She settles into her chair and her eyes rake over you. You’d assumed they were glowing like the rest of the lines on her skin, but their colour hasn’t faded. It matches the colour of her text, and of the runes you’ve been seeing. A link between eye colour and magic colour, maybe? 

“You’re shorter than I expected, too,” you add with a smirk.

Her mouth opens in shock and she stares at you. “I translocate into a room from halfway around the world, and all you can say is that I’m short?”

“Well, you are.”

She harrumphs and crosses her arms. “So. Quaffle’s on your side, Sergeant. You wanted the meeting.”

Dammit, Rose. “Okay, but did you have to word it like that? Because now I’m wondering if Quidditch is an actual game you play or if you’re just making a pop culture reference.”

She grins. “Can’t it be both?”

“I’ve met you now. I can confirm that you’re not a government agent, you’re not a Voidborn trying to corrupt me, and you’re definitely magical. Either that or the teleporting was a really good illusion.”

“All of those things are true. Well. Except for the translocating. I had to call in a favour from one of our space experts to get over here on such short notice. I can’t manage the distance or the precision she can.” She’s rambling. “So. How about it, Sergeant Lalonde? An alliance?”

You weigh up your options. On the one hand, horrible death. On the other hand, working with wizards but potentially committing treason. 

You lean forwards in your seat and hold your hand out to her. “An alliance, Rose.”

She takes your hand gently. Pins and needles run up your arm, numbing it. She’s thrumming with energy. You can _feel_ it. She shakes your hand, then lets it go. You flex your fingers, and she laughs. “Ah. Sorry. I forgot to mention that. Magic has a tendency to be a little...overwhelming.”

“You don’t say.” You glance back in the direction of the barracks. “I’m going to need your help convincing High Command that this is a good idea. You know that, right?”

“I can’t hypnotise them, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Dammit. There goes Plan A.”

\---

“So let me get this straight.” Says General Peixes, pressing her palms against her desk. She seems incredulous. Not that you blame her. Shit’s whack. “You’re telling me that you’ve been in correspondence with one of the unknowns, and you haven’t seen fit to tell anyone?”

Internally, you groan. Of course she’d focus on that. “There’s also the part where they want to work with us to help us win this war. The Apostates are the best edge we have. You and I both know that.”

She rubs the bridge of her nose. “I know they’re new and powerful. I don’t know if they’re our edge, or the enemy’s. For one moment, let’s _pretend_ that I believe a word that this ‘Rose’ chick told you; that I believe they’re on our side. How the hell do I convince the rest of Command? They’re making a decision on whether or not to wipe the bastards out, and you want me to ask for an alliance instead.”

“There are ways.” You’re thinking fast. “Publicly, they can say that we’re ‘joining forces against a common enemy’. Then privately, you can tell them that putting all the Apostates in one building together with armed military personnel is a good way to keep an eye on them. Friends close, enemies closer, throw some Shakespeare in there too. Command doesn’t have to worry about them doing anything dangerous, because they’ll be required to consult with the military first. And beyond that, what better way to assess a potential threat than to work alongside them and learn about their ‘technology’?”

The General looks at you, letting your words sink in. “You’re good at the game for a beginner, Sergeant.”

You shrug. “You told me to run politics and I do my best to be awesome at everything I try. You wanted me to keep the public calm? I made an alliance with the second-most-powerful force we’ve ever seen, instead.”

“I knew there was a reason I put you on politics. I can work this angle. If we play our cards right, we might just end up not fighting two wars at once.”

You tap the desk. A rune adorning it glows briefly, lines trailing over the wooden surface, and you feel a crackle of energy. “If you play your cards right, General,” says Rose from behind you, “you might not need to fight this war for much longer at all.”

Peixes does better than you did, to her credit. She starts reaching for her gun at a relaxed pace and her fingers rest against it. “Would it have killed you to provide a little warning, Sergeant?” You shrug. After settling down again, she looks at Rose. “You must be the Seer.”

Rose spreads her hands out, gesturing at herself. “In the flesh. Sergeant Lalonde believed it would be best if I spoke to you, rather than you operating simply on goodwill.” She holds her hand out to shake. Your general looks at it, then between the two of you, but doesn’t move to shake it.

“Until I make the case to Command, you’re an unknown. And after that, you’re useful.”

Dammit, Peixes. 

Rose nods. “Understandable. Just know that I intend to help, with or without High Command’s blessing.”

“Only you could make helping sound like a threat.” You mutter to her. She smiles her seerly smile.

The General makes a call and the two of you wait outside. Rose gets a few odd looks from the guards. After a few minutes, she steps out of her office and looks at you. “I’m going to be on a cargo plane to visit HQ in two hours. And you two are coming with me.”

Oh, goddamn it.

\---

A week of long debates and interrogations later, the two of you are driven out to the dockyard. Rusting, twisted wrecks mark the path. The car stops in front of an aircraft carrier, and you step out. A colony of welders work on the plating of the ship, scattered across its surface like worker ants.

“This is it?” Rose asks, as the two of you grab your bags. “Is it normal for your scientific projects to take place at sea?” 

“Only when we expect them to explode,” you call back over your shoulder as you step on to the gangplank. Scientific project. Right. You and Rose both know you’re out here to cause as little trouble as possible. High Command may have agreed on collaborating with the Apostates, but it’s on a technicality. They just want you all kept on the same ship, out of the way.

You’re guided to the captain’s office once you’re on board. God, you hate aircraft carriers. There are way too many corridors. A yeoman opens the door ahead of you and you step into a damn nice office. Is that a mahogany table? 

...Is that a mahogany table with knife marks in it? 

“Captain Serket?” you ask, looking at the other occupant of the room. You start raising your hand to shake hers, only to notice the prosthetic limb she has in place of a left arm. Shit. You look down at your sling. Double shit. She shakes Rose’s hand instead.

“Sergeant. Seer. Welcome to the Scourge. It’s the best damn ship in the fleet, so don’t blow it up.” She takes her seat. You and Rose do the same. “Look. There’s one thing you need to know here. When High Command announced this alliance or whatever they’re calling it, I volunteered my ship and crew to help. That’s for one reason and one reason alone. I think you’re our best chance. With the Apostates on side, and with a little luck, we might actually win this war.” She leans back. Her hand moves to the handle of what looks like an antique cutlass resting on the desk. Note to self: the captain likes blades. “You two are heading up the project. But if for one moment I think you’re risking my ship or my crew, I’ll slit your fuckin’ throats. Clear?”

You meet her eye and nod. “Perfectly clear, Captain.”

“Good. Now report to your stations. We’re leaving port this afternoon, and you’d damn well better pull your own weight.”

\---

Apostates arrive every day. Some of them translocate, appearing without warning on the deck of the carrier. One of them appears on the radar tower, and you hear that Captain Serket almost tears one apart for arriving in her office. Amongst the magical arrivals, a team from R&D is flown out. You recognise one of them from university, and hug her in greeting. She smiles her buck-toothed smile and joins the others.

A group in black and white robes signal the last of the translocators. One of them...wait, is one of them _glowing_? Rose passes a bottle of something to that one as she passes.

“It’s always good to be owed a favour. Those are our translocators; Space manipulators.” Rose explains when you ask. “They’ve been sending people to my runes. On our own, we wouldn’t be able to get the degree of accuracy to arrive here at all. We’d end up in the water, or sliced in half by the ship.” You wince. “Now that they’re here, there’s only a few more arrivals to go.” You want to ask what she means by that. You’re out to sea already and the translocators are already on this side, so how the hell is someone supposed to get here?

You don’t have to wait long for your answer. Later the same day, you accompany Rose to the communications room. Computer screens flicker and people stare at them, oblivious to their surroundings. You consider asking why the two of you are standing around and waiting when one of the radar operators jumps to his feet and runs to the captain. She follows him back to the station and observes his radar port. You try to listen, but you can only hear murmurs.

“Captain.” Rose speaks up. Serket spins around.

“What?”

“They’re some of mine. They let me know they were coming, and now they’re letting you know the same thing. If they didn’t want to show up on radar, they wouldn’t.”

She groans. “See, this is what I was talking about when I said ‘putting my crew in danger’, Seer. I needed this knowledge the moment you had it.”

The ghost of a smile passes across Rose’s lips. “Apologies, Captain. But I need to go and say hello to an old friend.” 

She leaves the room, and you follow. Whatever’s arriving is big enough to show up on radar, and flying. There’s basically no way you’re not going up to the flight deck to see them land.

You squint as you step out into the open. Captain Serket follows you out a moment later. You rake your eyes across the sky, searching for signs of life, then glance over to look to Rose only to see her eyes glowing. She smiles after a moment, and the glow fades. “She’s making a dramatic entrance.” 

A mighty roar sends vibrations through the deck beneath your feet. Your stomach drops away, and you’re struck by flashbacks of seeing Jurassic Park as a child.

“Rose, what the hell was...” 

Four massive feet strike the deck at once. 

“...That.”

Rose looks at your expression and smirks. You force your mouth to close. A shadow passes overhead, and you look up. More than a dozen shapes are circling the ship. One of them swoops in just in front of you, flapping its leathery wings and dropping on to a helipad.

“Dragons. Fucking _dragons_.” you say, staring.

Rose turns to Serket. “There’s a team of Seers amongst the recent arrivals. Find them and get them placed into the communications room. They’ll See magical arrivals days before your radar operators can.” The captain nods, and Rose approaches one of the smaller dragons. You realise at this point that each dragon has a rider. The one just ahead wears teal and red clothing and seems even shorter than Rose. When she jumps down from dragonback and stands next to the Seer, your suspicions are confirmed. 

“It’s good to see you.” says Rose with a smile.

The rider grins a far-too-toothy grin, pulling up her bright red goggles to reveal equally bright red eyes. “There’s no way I’d let you have all the fun. The fighting is going to be delicious.” Rose shakes her hand and the lines adorning their skin glow bright; one side purple, one side teal.

“That was Terezi.” Rose tells you as she makes her way back through the ship. “We trained as Seers together, which is how we communicate. I stayed the path, while she found a dragon egg. Such things have a habit of being more important than the Sight.”

“Dragons.” you respond. “Motherfucking dragons.”

Rose grins at you. “Motherfucking dragons.”

\---

Your sling comes off the next day. Your arm still hurts like a bitch, but it’s doing better. There are only a few more arrivals after Terezi’s group; two more dragons, a Gryphon (a fucking _Gryphon_ ), a man with butterfly wings, and a few things you don’t have a name for.

Now they’re all gathered on the flight deck. Soldiers, scientists, and apostates. The collaboration you’d fought for confined to a single ship. You step up to the front alongside Rose, and the two of you face your crew. Your army. You clear your throat. A camera focuses on you. Even here, even now, the media had still found a way to get involved.

“We’re here because we have a common enemy, the Voidborn. A collaboration between cultures to overcome a greater threat. That’s what High Command and the news would have you believe. But that’s not true.”

Rose takes over. “We’re here because our survival depends on it. What you do here will either go down in history or be forgotten when this world is turned to dust. All of us being here, on board this ship, is us making a choice.” Her hand traces along the symbol adorning her robes, and you almost miss your cue staring at her.

Rose glances over at you. Right. Shit. Your line. “A choice not to give in. We have fought alone for too long. All of us have. We’ve given our blood and our lives to the war. We’ve sacrificed too much. But that ends now. Science teams, apostates, you should have all the resources you need. Everyone else? Be ready.”

Neither of you wait for a reaction. You walk away from the front and into the ship.

\---

An hour later, you’re well on your way to being drunk in your bunk. Hehe. That rhymed.

“Celebrating?” a pretty voice asks from somewhere, and you look around. Rose is in fact standing in the doorway. You cheer.

“O’ course I am! Why wouldn’t I be celebrating?” you ask, only slurring a little. Rose closes the door.

She sits next to you on the bunk. Her dextrous fingers pluck the bottle from your grasp and you complain, reaching for it. Undettered, she takes a long swig, shuddering afterwards. “Oh dear gods. That is _foul_ ,” she mutters, then takes another drink.

“Bleh?” you ask.

“Bleh.” she concurs with a smile, and passes the bottle back. “How did you even get that on board? I thought the military had rules about that. Far too many rules.”

You shrug. “Nobody checked my bags when I got here. Bein’ a mighty war hero - ” You wave your stronger hand dramatically, forgetting the bottle is already in it and spilling a shot’s worth of alcohol on the bed. “ - has its perks.”

“Ahh. So that’s what this is about.” she nods, sagely. Stupid sagely seer. “You don’t like your leadership position.”

You groan and gulp down more vodka. It barely burns any more. “What, are you a therapist or someth...oh goddamn it’s in your screen name isn’t it.” You squeeze your eyes shut and pass the bottle back blindly. “Fine. Yes. Maybe.”

“You don’t feel like you’re ready for it.” She says. You can feel her staring at you.

“There’s no ‘think’ about it. I ain’t ready. This time last year, I was a private. Two years ago I was a physicist. I only finished college a few years ago, for fuck’s sake. In what possible universe am I a good choice for a goddamn fucking _leader_ of a magical military force?”

You open her eyes to look for her answer. She drinks slowly, then swirls the bottle thoughtfully. “In this universe. But you’re forgetting one thing. You’re not the leader. This is a collaboration, Roxy. Cooperation, alliance, all those other fun words for working together. You might be terrified of leading, and I might be too. But we can do it together. That’s what this entire project is about. We can do it, and so can the people we lead.”

Okay. Goddamn, Rose, stop being perfect. You kiss her cheek. She flushes – oh, _damn_ , that’s adorable - and you steal the bottle back. “You might be terrified too?” you ask, and she frowns. “Hey, you’re not the only one who can pay attention and do therapy. I can go to _town_ on your ass.” Her blush darkens, and you pause. “Not what I meant.”

“A simple slip of the tongue, I’m sure.” Okay, you are damn certain she did that on purpose. Freud is alive and well. “You know, I wasn’t supposed to be the leader of the Apostates. At the start, I wasn’t. Calliope’s the most powerful translocator I’ve ever seen. She got us all to the fight, that first day. She fought harder than anyone else. She closed the portal. She gave her life sealing it, just to buy us a chance. She was meant to lead us. I wasn’t even lined up as a successor. I just knew I had to talk to you. Now I’m working alongside you here, and the Apostates know that this alliance is our only chance of victory. So they all turn to me.” Her voice turns bitter at the end there, and she takes another drink. “This stuff is far too strong.”

“You’re the one who keeps drinking it.” you retort. Your cheek is against something hard and it’s difficult to speak. You eventually realise that it’s her shoulder. “I’m sorry to hear about your friend. If it helps any, I think you’ve done a great job so far. You did convince High Command that an alliance was our best chance, after all.”

She waves her hand. “Nono. That was all you. I just convinced you to convince High Command. You did the hard part.”

You gasp, fake-affronted. “Are you suggesting I’m easy?”

“ _Hardly..._ ”

After that point, the night blurs together. 

You wake up the next morning with a headache and your arm crushed beneath you. Your shoulder screams at you. “Shut up,” you tell it, and roll on to your back. Where’s Rose?

A groan from the top bunk answers that question. “Owwww.” You laugh, and her groans intensify. “Noo. Your non-magical alcohol is awful. I hate it. I’m never drinking it ever again.”

“How did you get up on to the top bunk?” you ask, rubbing your eyes.

“I have no idea. Wait...I think...Yes, I think I climbed up here after we both crossed the threshold into sleepy drunk. About ten minutes after we entered flirtatious drunk territory. These bunks are too small for two, so I made the sacrifice and climbed up here.” Her arm flops down over the edge of the bed and your eyes follow the faint markings running along it. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and die.”

\---

Once the two of you are recovered from your exercise in mutual drunkenness, you both settle into the leadership role. You join the researchers, and Rose joins the Apostate specialists. The R&D labs quickly turn into a mixture of scientific instruments and magical paraphernalia. The smell of incense mingles with hand sanitizer, and candles are lit with Bunsen burners.

“Runes,” Rose explains to the science team, pushing up her sleeve and tracing a finger along the faint lines there, “work in combination. A single rune, alone, is almost useless. It needs to be connected to something else. But when many are joined together, they create a much larger effect. A wand or staff is simply a way of channelling and magnifying the energy of the runes in different ways. We tend to use physical mnemonics when casting spells. And spells, at their core, come from runes. I couldn’t teleport simply by wanting to. I need to have the right runes, either tattooed to myself or placed on the ground. After that, an energy pulse can activate the rune. Human contact is traditionally used in the magical community.” She looks at you. “Sergeant Lalonde has encountered this personally. I projected runes on to her laptop, but they only activated when she touched the device.” Well, that explains that one.

Your college friend, Jade Harley, raises a hand and Rose points at her. “Does it have to be biological electricity, or would something mechanical work? From your description, and the lines on your skin between the runes, they seem...just like circuit diagrams, actually. Couldn’t I just attach a battery to one and have it do the same thing?”

Circuit diagrams. Motherfucker. How did you miss that?

“I don’t know. No one has ever tried it, as far as I know. By the time your culture was dabbling with electricity, we’d long since gone underground. But, as a theory...I bloody love it.” A murmur of excitement passes through the group.

She sketches out a rune circuit for ‘Light’ with a conductive pen and your old classmate steps forwards with a pair of crocodile clips hooked up to a battery. Hardly the most high-tech experiment ever. She presses one against either side of the pattern. There’s a spark, and then a bright glow. “Holy shit.”

The paper it’s drawn on catches fire. “Holy shit!”

One of the wizards steps forward, drawing a wand and spinning it before pressing it against the remains of the paper. The fire goes out. Huh. Rose looks from one astonished face to another before her eyes settle on you.

“Ladies and gentlemen, and variants thereupon. I do believe we have our project.”

\---

A lot happens over the next month. You line kevlar with Protection runes, the circuitry running across its surface like cracked dirt in a desert. You watch teams carve symbols into the surface of bullets, infusing them with every ability under the sun (amongst others). You test fire missiles over the gulf, watching their trail glow before they explode into a thousand glittering stars. The science team requisition armour from a group of decaying tanks rusting just off the coast of Lopan. The evidence of one more failed assault on the Voidborn is recovered and reforged. Reactive plating atop ablative armour, covered in more rune circuits than you can recognise. Rose and the other Apostates know them all by heart, though, leaving you and the scientists to design other devices or carve runes into existing weaponry.

A few of the scientists and apostates are working together on side projects. You don’t ask what they’re doing. Anything they can create will help.

Throughout the ship, you hear people starting to communicate; magi and soldiers comparing sports or combat styles, pilots and dragon riders comparing overinflated stories, Seers learning how to read the radar screens and radar operators trying Lecanomancy. You’re pretty sure one of them can actually do it. You walk with Rose one night, passing the physicists and the seers as they talk shop. 

“What? Come on, there’s no way Communing is faster than a quantum entanglement relay could be. That’s instantaneous communication across any distance, and what’s communing?” one says, and the mage rubs his eyes.

“Communing is communication across realms. Between dimensions, if need be. From how you’ve described it, there’s no way quantum entanglement could ever work between dimensions. It’s just less practical for truly long-range communication.”

The physicist scoffs. “Oh, don’t you bring multiverse theory into this. We’re talking about communication within this dimension, not between here and the Void. Who would you even call in the void, anyway?”

You grin and look at Rose. “It’s working.”

“They’re collaborating,” she agrees. 

You bump her shoulder with yours good-naturedly. “Damn right. And it’s all thanks to you.”

“It’s all thanks to _us_ ,” she corrects, as the two of you reach your quarters. You’ve taken to sharing the room. Your top bunk is free, and it gives both of you the privacy you need to plot. After you step in and close the door, she turns to you. She shifts a little on her feet, clearly looking uncomfortable. It’s cute. “I have a gift for you.”

She has a what? “Huh? How’d you find a gift out here in the middle of the ocean?” She smiles her seerly smile and walks over to her bags, rootling around before pulling out...a wand. Is that...

“As it turns out, we have a wandmaker. I thought they’d all stayed with the High Council, but one slipped away. It wasn’t easy to convince her to help, and having to rely on a translation rune sequence didn’t exactly make matters less complicated.” She’s nervous, and rambling. “But...I asked her to make a wand for you.”

“Oh my god. Rose, that...” You stare at her, and at the wand. At your wand. It’s almost pure white, with tiny runes twisting across its surface. It’s beautiful. She’s beautiful. You step forwards and hug her tightly. She makes a shocked noise, then relaxes and presses herself against you. You don’t want to let her go. So you don’t.

“Wands don’t just focus or magnify the runes people have tattooed,” Rose says after a few moments, when it’s clear the two of you will be hugging for a while. “They’re more than that. _People_ are more than that. Everyone...everyone contains magic. It is writ in all of us. You’d say it’s in our DNA. Runes build us. They form us. And each individual has their own abilities. It’s why I’m a Seer. Scry Past, Scry Future, Belief, Unknown. Those are the four runes I’ve always been attuned to most strongly. Anyone can See, with the right tools. Lecanomancy bowls have those runes carved into them. But a Seer is born with magic inside them which matches those runes.” 

You listen intently, letting her words wash over you as you feel her heartbeat and her warmth.

“That’s why not everyone has the same level of power casting the same spells. It’s nothing to do with pushing yourself further, and everything to do with who you are. The Translocators are built of the magic of space; Calliope was so, more strongly than all of them. I am built of the magic of Sight, and of Light. I don’t know what you are built of, Roxy Lalonde. I don’t know what magic runs through your veins. But I know I want to find out. I want to See your power.” She pulls back and stares up at you, her hand stroking across your cheek. Her magic sings, sending shivers down your spine. Her eyes meet yours. You lick your lips, hyperaware of how dry they feel. Her fingers trace over your cheek, and the runes covering her skin begin to glow.

Abruptly she steps back and brushes her hair from her eyes, blushing. She notices she’s still holding your wand and passes it to you. You take it, still staring. This ship is too warm. And what the hell was that? “That’s why wands are so important,” she continues, once she’s composed herself. “They take a person’s magic and magnify it. When someone uses a wand for the first time, it becomes attuned to their own ‘runes’. Those markings on your wand are placeholders. When you use it for the first time, it will focus on your most prominent magical abilities. Over time, the other runes will fade.”

“Right. I, uh...thank you, Rose. It means a lot to me.” You smile at her, and she smiles back. She’s still flushed, and your cheeks still feel warm. You open your mouth to speak – 

The shipwide intercom activates. “Sergeant Lalonde, report to the captain’s office.” 

Goddamn it. You shrug and tuck your new wand into your back pocket, bidding Rose farewell. She waves and you leave.

Captain Serket is waiting for you when you get there. “We’re setting course for High Command. We’ll be there in a week.” 

What? You still have supplies, there’s no reason to do that. “Captain, this is an eight-month mission. Why are we heading back?”

She growls, pacing the room. “Because they want results.”

You step towards her, gritting your teeth. “Results? We’ve got results! We’ve developed more technology over the past month than High Command has managed to prototype in two years.”

“It’s not enough, Sergeant.” Her voice loses the sharp edge, and you stop. “They’ve changed their mind. The project is over.” You feel like you’ve been punched in the gut. Actually, that would hurt less. “We’re to report to High Command, and the Apostates are to be either sent away or arrested. After your speech, there was a lot of bad press for them. Telling the public that the Apostates are our best hope of winning tends to have that effect.”

Shit. This can’t be happening. This can’t be your fault. “Captain, we can’t just...”

“We don’t have a choice, Lalonde. It’s bullshit, I know. But unlike you, I’m not willing to commit treason for the sake of the Apostates.”

“Captain, _please_. The final attack is almost here. We need to be a united front against them, or we all lose.”

“I know. Lalonde, it’s not - ” The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Serket’s eyes widen “Duck.” You duck. She takes her cutlass from her desk and sweeps it around at head level all in a single motion. You feel blood spatter across your back and you turn. A tentacled monstrosity falls into two pieces, dripping black blood. You jump backwards, trying to reach for your pistol. You don’t have one. Shit.

“How the fuck did it get on board?” The Captain moves back around her desk to pick up the intercom. There’s static for a few moments...and then screaming.

Her face twists into a snarl. “Shit. They’re teleporting aboard. We need to get outside, work out where they’re coming from.” Something slams against the door and she steps around, twirling her sword. Another slam. And then the door buckles inwards. She swings at the Voidborn the moment she sees it, cleaving its eyeless face in two. “Lalonde, go!”

You go. You run out of the captain’s office, past her dead yeoman, to check the hallway. There’s gunfire and shouting everywhere and you take a breath. Your fingers wrap around an object in your back pocket and you pull it out. The wand. You curse. It’d be a lot more useful if you actually knew how to use a wand. You start moving again just because you know better than to stay still. You make it halfway down the corridor before a voidborn smashes through from the floor above you. “Shit!” You back up, and it focuses itself on you. “Shit, shit, shit - ” Gunfire hits it from above, through the hole it had created. It screeches and jumps back up. You hear a yell and then a dull impact. You turn back and run the other way.

You make it up a floor. Rose. Where’s Rose? You hear gunfire close by and peek around the corner to see a firing squad shredding a group of voidborn. You grin. And then, obviously, one teleports right on top of them. Goddamn it. It crushes one and wraps a tentacle around the neck of another, squeezing. It lashes out, knocking two more to the ground, before having its face introduced to the business end of a shotgun. You keep moving. You pass by the science lab, and the door is promptly blown off its hinges along with the remains of a Voidborn. You take a step back and raise your wand, only to see Jade step through the door holding what most definitely looks nothing like a standard issue rifle. She looks over and sees you before grinning. “So, uh, the prototype works!” She proceeds to yelp and drop it with a hiss, shaking her hands in the air. “...Still has the overheating issue.”

You grin at her and move onwards, running up the stairs and finally reaching the open air. “Holy shit...” you mutter. Voidborn are everywhere. The dragons fly, riderless, attacking and burning everything they can. One swoops down and scorches half a dozen of them a few metres in front of you. You put your face in front of your hand and move around the fire. A jet roars past you and starts taking off, only to have a voidborn jump on to its wing. It spins out, crashing into the surface of the water and exploding. You look around, searching for any trace of a portal in the sky. There isn’t one. How the hell are they teleporting? You move further down the runway. There’s no trace of anything anywhere. Are they drawn to the magic?

Something causes you to look back at the doorway just in time to see Rose step through it, a wand in both hands and a rocket launcher strapped to her back. She walks forwards, into the midst of a group of them. One swings. That’s when she starts really moving. She ducks and energy flows from her wands like a pair of whips. It slices through the first two without even slowing down. She keeps the momentum of her spin, jumping and using the other weapon to tear through a third. Another one swings and she summons a barrier. It bounces back and she follows up with a trio of energy blasts. The fifth attacks and she sidesteps, swinging the whip to wrap around its neck. Then she tugs. Its head hits the ground and a moment later, so does the rest of it. 

Holy shit. That was hot.

She looks towards you. You meet her eyes. And in that moment, a Voidborn teleports behind her.

“ROSE!”

She turns. She doesn’t turn fast enough. There’s no way she can stop it. You swing your gun around wide – you don’t have a gun. You finger is already squeezing an imaginary trigger. A blast of pink energy shoots from the tip of your wand past Rose’s ear, knocking the Voidborn to the ground. Rose’s jaw drops, matching yours. You just... 

“I just used magic.” 

You’re a motherfucking wizard, Roxy. 

Rose flicks her wand at the fallen Voidborn, blasting it apart. Runs towards you and grabs your arm. “You used magic. But right now we have more important things to deal with.”

She’s right. “Where are they coming from? They’re not supposed to be able to teleport unless there’s a portal!”

Rose shakes her head. “No. The portals give them access to this world.” She approaches the edge of the ship, peering over and down into the water. “Once they’re here, though, it’s the big ones who make the dimensional barriers thin enough for more to push through.” 

Big ones? Oh...oh no. She shoots her wand into the water. “Rose...” The water swells. The ship begins tipping. “Rose!” A beast breaches the water. It’s colossal. Its tentacles could crush fighter jets. It opens its maw, revealing rows of teeth, each of them bigger than you are. She pulls the rocket launcher from her back, removes the rocket, and passes the launcher to you. Why the hell has she taken your rocket? You glance between her and the Voidborn, holding your new launcher. She’s drawing a sequence of runes on the explosive with her wand, the symbols showing up in purple before fading. The beast roars. “Rose. Is that a fucking Kraken?”

“Don’t be silly.” She loads the rocket and leans in, kissing your cheek. “Krakens are bigger.”

You fire.

\---

An hour later, the ship is cleared of Voidborn, and all you can think about is fried calamari. Captain Serket stares at the beast alongside you and Rose. “Any other ship in the fleet would’ve been torn apart by that thing.” she says, and you turn to face her. “I’m not under the impression the Scourge survived because it’s my ship and therefore better. Even though that’s true, it still should’ve been shredded. I was right about the Apostates. You’re the best weapons we have.” She looks at the remains of the gigantic voidbeast again. “I can’t make the crew commit treason for you, but I can make damn sure we take the most meandering route back to High Command we can. Two months.”

She...she’s giving you another chance. “Thank you, Captain.”

Rose speaks up again. “We won’t need two months. The final attack will be before then. If they threw a beast of that size at us, they view us as a threat. They’re preparing for the final assault and they don’t want anyone who can stop them left standing. We survived. That means we just need to be in the right place.”

Serket smirks. “See, that’s the kind of confidence I need.”

\---

The next few days are a flurry of activity. Casualty reports (87 dead, 140 wounded), repairs to doors and walls and armour. The whole ship is in disarray, and you need to get it into...array? Yeah, that.

Thursday evening finds you cleaning up the science labs with Harley and half a dozen others. “Yo, what happened to that gun you were using?” you ask, sweeping up broken glass and eyeing the empty doorframe. “It looked like railgun tech.”

She sighs, scrubbing Voidborn blood from one of the work surfaces. “It damn near melted is what happened. But, yeah. Railgun.” She pulls off her gloves and steps across the room, almost tripping over an exposed wire before pulling out an enormous rifle from behind a desk. “Roxy, meet the MP4.13 model Magnetised Projectile Emitter. We call her the Motherfucker.”

Your jaw drops open. No way. “No fucking way. You got compact railgun tech working strong enough to blast one of those things apart?”

“Uh...just about working, yeah. There’s too much power in the runes though, so the whole thing almost catches on fire whenever I try and use it. There’s a focusing rod inside, but it doesn’t do nearly enough. Karkat...you know Karkat, right? The haemodynamist? Anyway. He says the only thing that might stop it nearly blowing up is a wand to focus the energy.” She slides a bolt back, checking the inner workings. “But most wizards aren’t exactly perky about the idea of putting their wand into an untested rifle.”

You smirk at her and draw your wand, spinning it between your fingers.

“...Goddamn, Lalonde. I could kiss you.”

\---

An hour later, the two of you are on the flight deck. You pass the rifle’s weight between your hands then unlatch the top of the rifle, sliding a panel back and, hesitantly, placing your wand within it. You really, really hope this doesn’t explode. Mainly because then you’d have to explain to Rose how you ended up disintegrating the wand she gave you. Jade guides you through the steps to priming the weapon, and you follow them. Flip that switch, slide that back, aim, flick the safety. You wrap your fingers around the handle and hear the biometric scanner beep. You fire. There’s an ear-splitting crack and the recoil makes you stagger backwards. You can see the line of plasma that followed the projectile, cast across the evening sky. 

“Whoo!” you laugh and lower the rifle, clicking the safety on and rubbing your shoulder. “Let’s do that again!”

\---

After thoroughly, thoroughly testing the rifle, you head back to your quarters. Damn, that would’ve been useful to have during the attack on the ship. You walk in on Rose staring at her lecanomancy bowl, the water slowly rippling. Papers are scattered around her. A lot of the Seers had been killed during the attack, caught unarmed in the communications room. Rose is one of a handful, now. She doesn’t look up when you walk in, or even when you sit next to her. “A railgun, Roxy? Really?” she asks, and you jump.

“Fucking seerly bullshit.” you mutter, pressing your hand against your chest. “Yeah, a railgun. I’m sorry I didn’t ask beforehand about using the wand like that.”

Rose shrugs. “I gifted it to you. It’s your wand, to do with what you wish.” She pauses, then the shadow of a smile crosses her lips. “Get off with it, if you really want to.”

 _”ROSE.”_ Your cheeks flush and you shove her shoulder. She just laughs. You roll your eyes and watch her as she stares into the waters.

“You seem to like the Harley girl.” she notes after a few moments.

“Oh hell no.” Hellllllls no. “You are not goin’ all jealous and possessive on me right now. We had primo makeout opportunity just before the attack and you got all shy about it.” Rose doesn’t respond. “Jade’s an old college friend, we had classes together.” Still nothing. “Rose? Oh, come on, don’t tell me I made you shy again by...” Her eyes aren’t focused on anything. Shit. She’s Seeing. How long do these things usually last? Were they tiring? Does she need some tea? A foot rub?

She gasps like she’s been held underwater, her eyes refocusing and looking around frantically. She tosses the bowl across the room. Water splashes everywhere. 

“Rose! Rose, I’m here. Are you okay?” 

Her hands start scratching across the desk. One of them finds a piece of paper and starts tearing and crinkling it. “It’s coming. It’s coming.” You wrap your arm around her and pull her close to you. The crying comes. Dry, gasping sobs that wrack her entire body. Shit. You squeeze her close, trying to soothe her. You don’t know what she Saw, but you know you need to be right here. Her hands find more paper, screwing it up into balls and starting to rip at it. Slowly, tentatively, you place your hand on hers. She stiffens, then melts against you. “Roxy. It...” Shhh. Shh, it’s okay. She shakes her head. “No. No, it’s not okay. It’s coming.”

“Rose, what is it? What’s coming?”

“The end.”

She doesn’t say anything for fifteen minutes after that. You just hold her close, stroking the back of her hand and hushing her. When she’s more composed, she swallows a few times and grips your hand tightly. “Remember what I told you the other day, about how the bigger creatures of the Void can allow other voidborn to travel through dimensions?” 

You nod.

“And remember what I said when we were first speaking, about how the voidborn are Daemons?” You nod again.

You nod again. You have a very, very bad feeling that you know where this is going.

“A Greater Daemon is coming.”

Yep, called it. “Shit.”

Rose nods. “Greater Daemons are...they’re the end of all things. They’re the closest thing we’ll ever see to a God. They change reality simply by _existing_. They don’t have to want to. They don’t have to try. They just _do it_. When it comes through the portal, the walls to our dimension will weaken all over the planet. More and more portals will open up everywhere, and they won’t close. Our entire world will be consumed by the Void.” She takes a few breaths. “Unless we kill it. If we do that, the entire invasion stops. Greater Daemons are the only beings strong enough to push through into our dimension. The other voidborn just follow through the cracks. If we kill it, reality reaffirms itself, and the portals close. Theoretically.”

“Theoretically?”

Rose levels a glare at you. “Nobody has ever killed one before, and I’m basing all of this on an incredibly traumatic vision I just had combined with our existing knowledge. Cut me a little slack.”

You kiss her forehead. “Slack cut. We need to tell the captain about this. And then we need a plan.”

\--

The two of you talk to the captain. There’s a lot of yelling and swearing involved on her part - which is understandable. You have just kinda told her that the world is going to come to an end and it’ll be caused by a gigantic planet-eating squid. But that aside, she takes it pretty well.

Over the next few nights, you meet with the others to talk tactics. Whenever the final attack comes, you’re going to be ready. Rose brings a number of the Apostates; you’re pretty sure Terezi tags along without an invite. A few of the Space experts are there, including Rose’s glowing friend. Captain Serket heads up military strategy, and develops a habit of butting heads with Terezi about battle plans. Jade and a few other scientists sit in for scientific consultation. It’s quite the little war council. 

But ultimately, it doesn’t matter.

You stand in the Captain’s office with Rose, watching news footage. Again. You seem to be developing a habit of helplessly watching the news from the sidelines. It’s coming. Khadr Bay. A portal has opened, larger than any you’ve seen before. Larger than the portal of the first event. This is it – the invasion Rose foresaw. And you aren’t ready. 

You slam your fist into Serket’s desk. “Damn it!”

“Roxy, relax.” 

Rose’s voice tries to soothe you, but you turn to face her instead. “Relax? Relax? This is the invasion that could finish us off, and it’s on the other side of Alterra. How the fuck am I supposed to relax? Even if we set off now, we wouldn’t be able to reach it until after we’d already lost. It would take days to get there.”

“Two and a half weeks.” The captain corrects. She’s still staring at the screen.

Rose looks between you and Serket. You can see the gears turning in her head. “We can be there in an hour.”

Serket laughs, harsh and low. “Right. We’ll all ride our magic broomsticks.”

“That’s not what I said.” She stares into your eyes. Barely even acknowledges the captain’s presence. You stare back. “We can be there in an hour. All of us.” 

Your eyes widen. She nods.

Captain Serket recovers first. She hammers the button to the shipwide intercom. “General quarter, general quarter! All hands to battle stations! T minus sixty minutes to battle zone. If I catch anyone away from their post, I will _personally_ throw them overboard, is that understood?” Both of you turn to face her. She clicks off the intercom and looks up. “That means you too, Lalonde. Seer, get it done.”

Rose nods briskly. “Give me all the information we have on the ship. I need its dimensions, its weight. I need to know exactly how many people are aboard. If you get any of those wrong, we’re dead.” She turns away, muttering to herself. “And get a welding crew. We need rune circuits on every corner of the ship.”

Fifty-eight very busy minutes later, you’re standing on deck, watching a group of magi clad in black and white. Rose steps up beside you. “Black and white,” you murmur to her. “That’s space manipulators, right?”

Rose nods. “Translocators. They’re the engine. All they need is a navigator. You may want to go inside for this, in case it goes wrong.”

“If it goes wrong, we’re all dead anyway.” 

She shrugs, conceding your point, and steps past you. The circle parts and she takes her place in the centre. The magi hold their hands out towards her. 

And then she screams.

You rush towards the circle. They knock you away. Her arms lash out to either side and her feet lift off the ground. She hangs there, and then her eyes open. There is nothing but light in them. She stares right at you. Smiles. And then she’s looking straight _through_ you, along the runway and across the ocean. “Khadr Bay,” she speaks, and the translocators echo her in unison. Something makes your hair stand on end and you turn to face the front of the ship.

There’s a portal there. 

“Full ahead,” Rose says, and somehow you know Captain Serket hears her. 

Travelling through a portal is even less pleasant than you’d expected. The ship lurches as water breaks against it, then it tips forwards slightly. The water level’s lower in the bay. You stare forwards as you move. After thirty seconds, you’re through. You see the devastation. You see the final portal, a voidstorm brewing around it. Lightning crackles across its surface. And, in the centre of it all, you see the Greater Daemon. A mass of tentacles, reaching down through the portal. One’s starting to wrap around a skyscraper. The beast dwarfs it. You swallow.

Then, as one, the Magi collapse. “Rose!” You rush to her side, past the translocators. “Rose, speak to me. Are you okay?” She opens her eyes, and you see the purple of them. Not light. She’s okay. You lift her to her feet and support her weight, walking her away from the circle to lean her against the wall. “You did it. You teleported us,” you say, half disbelieving. She mutters something. “What?”

“Translocated,” she says, and you laugh.

Captain Serket’s voice pierces your moment, tinny as it is through the speakers. “Get us a weapon lock! ... What do you mean, the GPS is fried? You know where we are. You can see the Voidborn, right? Then aim your guns at them and start shooting! It’s not that rocket science! All infantry divisions, get to your transports. All air units, you are cleared for takeoff. The magi got us here, let’s not waste the opportunity. Move out!”

Rose pushes herself off the wall and shakes her head, blinking a few times to clear her vision. “I hope you’ve got us a transport, Sergeant.”

“Of course I do, Seer.” You grin. The guns start, and the first jet roars past you. You hook her arm around your shoulder and help her back inside. You have a helicopter to catch.

\---

You watch the buildings below you. Even from up here, you can see the fighting in the streets. The soldier next to you lifts the mounted grenade launcher into its slot and starts shooting. Noise fills the helicopter and makes your teeth rattle. “We’re close to the drop zone!” the gunner calls over. Lightning strikes nearby, and you lament being in a metal can. “Voidborn are swarming, though, I’m not sure if it’s a smart place to - ” The soldier is promptly eviscerated by a Voidborn smashing through the fuselage. Blood sprays across your uniform. The helicopter starts spinning out, and the Voidborn starts to rise. You hammer your fist against your safety belt, releasing it, and raise your rifle. Fire twice at the creature. Shots tear through it and it goes down. Rose looks at you, raises her wands, and nods. You drop out of the hole. You aim your feet at the ground and activate your boot’s servo-jets. They burn hot, and you roll into the landing. You come up shooting. Magnetically-accelerated slugs tear your enemies apart. Ahead of you, the helicopter crash lands, crushing half a dozen Voidborn underneath it.

When the dust parts, you see a purple bubble. Rose’s shield drops a moment later, and she comes out swinging. She summons a whip, slicing through the tentacles of her foes. The other shoots magic at anything that approaches. You raise your rifle and hit a pair of them before making your way over. Rose parries an attack and aims her wand into one of the Voidborn’s enormous maws. 

“We need to get closer! We should regroup with the other squads, and the forces that aren’t from the Scourge.” You shout, turning back and shredding the void beast who’d been following you. 

“We’ve got the element of surprise, but if that thing makes it all the way through then we’re all dead.” Rose twirls her wands and phantasmal blades shoot outwards, killing the last half a dozen. One of the gigantic tentacles reaching through the portal tightens its grip on a skyscraper and you swear you can hear the metal scream from all the way over here.

You push through the streets. A dragon flies low, unleashing fire at one of the larger beasts. Its rider aims the cannon and swats another voidborn from the sky.

The two of you make your way through a mall and, finally, reach a strongpoint. You ask for the head of the defence and a young soldier with a pistol strapped to each hip directs you to the lieutenant. The lieutenant in question is easy to spot, considering the katana strapped to his back. You salute him. He salutes back, then resumes checking a map.

“Sergeant Roxy Lalonde of the Scourge, sir.”

“I know. I wasn’t expecting to see you here. Thought the Scourge was stationed halfway around the world.”

“It was, sir.” 

He looks up again, towards Rose, and suddenly requires no further explanation. “We need to break through 21st Street. A downed plane is blocking 7th, but if they break through that way we’ll be slaughtered.” 

You check your rifle’s ammo and run your fingers along its runes. This is quite the stress-test for it. “We can push it with a little backup. The rest of the forces from the Scourge should be punching through the centre of their lines. If we take 21st then cut across the park, we’ll meet up with them.”

The lieutenant nods. “We’ve got civilians and wounded here, so I can’t afford to pool all my resources. A fireteam will go with you, but we need the rest here until a route is secured.”

You snap the rifle’s bolt forwards and nod, moving out and heading towards 21st. A dozen soldiers are holding it, shooting at anything that approaches. As you reach them, a Voidborn drops down from a building in front of them and you blow it apart.

“Alright!” You bark. “Four of you, with me. Everyone else hold the line and make sure they don’t flank us.” A group gets close and you raise your weapon again, squeezing off shots. Rose steps forwards and slices two horrors into writhing pieces. “Oh, and a word of advice: don’t get in her way.” The soldiers nod, staring at your gun and at the Seer wielding magic wands. “Move out!”

You push forwards. With your weapons, it doesn’t take long to punch a hole and get out into a more open area. You see the rest of the forces from the Scourge, moving up from the docks. The soldier next to you signals to the rear, and the survivors start moving up. Good. They’ve got a clear path. They’ll be safe...just so long as you stop the Greater Daemon from getting through. You look up at the portal, then down at the half-crushed skyscraper. 

“We need to get up there,” Rose says. “I know what we need to do. But the only question is how. Our helicopter crashed, and I don’t see another one getting us closer to the portal. The voidstorm is too intense.” 

Goddamn it. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance of us using the elevator,” you remark, and Rose cracks a wry smile. 

A voidbeast breaches through a smaller portal in front of the main force, tearing two soldiers in half. Rifts are opening everywhere. It’s begun. Magic missiles bounce from the beast’s thick skin and rockets merely stagger it. Shit. You aim your rifle, steadying it. A jet flies low past you with a deafening scream. The air displacement knocks you off target, and you watch as it launches missiles. They explode in a green fireball, and when it clears, the beast is gone. The jet soars away. Rose follows your gaze after it and you can see her thinking. You need to fly there. Helicopters are too slow, and there’s no way you’re getting a plane to pick you up in the middle of a warzone.

Rose is muttering under her breath. Her eyes glow again. Then, after a few seconds, the light fades and Rose smiles. 

There’s a familiar roar and a dragon lands in the park ahead of you, its wings kicking up dust. Terezi pushes up her goggles and grins her manic grin. “You called, Seer?”

“That I did, Seer.” Rose responds. Fuck yes. “Are you coming?” she asks, and holds her hand out. You take it and run to the great beast, climbing atop its back. Okay. This is. Surreal. You’re riding a dragon now. Dreamworks Animation shit up in here.

Terezi lowers her goggles again. “You may want to hold on tight.” She leans in close to the dragon, stroking her fingertips along a patch of scales that aren’t covered in plate armour. “Fly, ‘spite. Fly.” It surges, lifting off the ground in a single motion. You squeak and wrap your arms around Rose’s waist. Terezi just laughs.

You soar. You see the battlefield from above, whenever you’re not spinning wildly. You get dizzy in the first fifteen seconds, but before then you see wizards casting spells to bring down mighty beasts. You see infantry squads tearing through voidborn with magical bullets. You see a translocator standing atop a hill, holding...is that a chainsaw? No. That’s definitely you being too dizzy.

Then you see the daemon. Its great tentacle tightens its grasp on the skyscraper and on the world. It seems almost like an anchor, tethering it to your dimension. For the first time, you’re directly beneath the portal. You look up into it...and wish you hadn’t. It’s a mass of tentacles and teeth, larger than anything you’ve ever seen before. It swamps the entire portal. You can’t see anything other than the writhing, all-consuming mass. You cling tighter to Rose.

Terezi swoops around the tentacle and slows down, hovering a few metres above the twisted and broken roof of the skyscraper. “I’ll be back to pick you up once it’s dead. This building isn’t stable, so make it count!” You nod and drop from the dragon’s back, landing on the roof. Rose follows you, landing on a looser slab of concrete. It falls inwards and you grab her hand, pulling her up and back to her feet.

“Get your wand out of the rifle and give it to me,” Rose shouts, above the howl of the voidstorm. Lightning crashes against the rod at the tip of the skyscraper. You slide back the cover of your weapon, pull out the wand and pass it to Rose, who shakes her head. “Not the wand, the rifle.”

Unquestioning, you pass her the gun, and she loads in one of her own wands, snaps the cover closed again and raises the weapon. She aims, flicks the switch, pulls the trigger. 

Nothing happens. 

She blinks and pulls the trigger again. Nothing continues to happen. “Roxy? Care to explain why this isn’t working?”

Oh no. Oh hell no. You look at the grip of the gun, and see...no lights. “Shit! It’s biometrically locked, like most of our guns are. If you’re not a soldier, you can’t use it. Damn it, Harley, do you have to make things so well? You can’t use it, I have to.”

Rose shakes her head. “My wand’s attuned to Light. With magnification and the tuning of the rifle, it’s our best shot at hurting this thing. But my wand is also attuned to me. It won’t react to you trying to use it.”

Shit. Shit. “Do we have a plan B?” you ask, looking back at Rose. 

She thinks, muttering words to herself and flicking the switch on the side of the rifle.

“Both of us,” she finally says. “Both of us, together. You can pull the trigger, I can provide the magical attunement.” 

That...that could work. You step close to her and wrap your hand around the grip. Rose holds the foregrip and raises it. Together, you aim.

“A-void this.” you say, and pull the trigger. 

The shot leaves a purple trail, punching straight through the beast’s tentacle...and not doing much else. The daemon roars. 

You stare, flatly. “What.”

“Not enough power.” Rose mutters.

“Oh, come on! I shot it! I said a pun! It should be dead!”

“There wasn’t enough power. We need more energy if we’re going to...” Another bolt from the voidstorm strikes the lighting rod. Both of you turn towards it. Rose smiles. “...That works.” Rose hits it with a blast of magic, shattering it and holding up the rifle in one hand. Her other hand draws her second wand. “Once you pull the trigger, step back. I’m living circuitry. I can channel the energy through me; you can’t.”

You shake your head, holding out your wand. “We do this together. You’re a walking lightning rod, but I can ground you.” You point at your combat boots. “You focus the energy, I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill us. Deal?”

Rose sighs. “Stubborn. So stubborn.” She holds the rifle out to you and you take the grip in your hand. You kiss her, making it as dramatic and finale-ish as possible. If you’re gonna die here, you’re damn well not gonna die without making it the biggest heroic sacrifice you can. You hold the rifle forwards and Rose’s hand wraps around yours. You hold up your wands and point them towards the sky.

“I’m not saying another pun,” you mutter, and lightning strikes you. You stare at Rose and see her runes glow bright. You pull the trigger, and the rifle surges in your hands. A beam of pink and purple projects forwards, as the rifle shatters apart in your hand. You let go of the ruined grip and interlink your fingers with Rose’s.

The surge stops.

You stagger backwards. You’re alive. You look towards the portal, and see a gigantic hole of burnt flesh in the maw of the beast. You laugh, then look towards Rose. She falls to her knees, smoke pouring from her tattoos. You step towards her and lift her up, looking at her. “Rose. Rose, are you okay?”

“...That first pun was awful,” she mutters, and you laugh. You lift her from the floor, holding her up and turning back towards the portal. The beast spasms and then slumps, its many tentacles falling limp. Around it, the portal shimmers then folds in on itself like a collapsing star, slicing off the errant tentacle as it dwindles to a single point of darkness...and then vanishes.

“Have...have we done it, Rose?”

She laughs and rests her forehead against yours, smiling. “We’ve done it, Roxy. We’ve done it.”

You hold her like that for a while.

Throughout the city, the Voidborn fall. Soldiers and Apostates cheer together. And above it all, encircling a twisted skyscraper of metal and flesh, a dragon roars.

Your name is Roxy Lalonde, and you’ve lived to see the end of the war. God _damn_ do you love wizards.


End file.
